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MURDER BY DESIGN
by Jon P. Bloch
St Martin's Minotaur, March 2004
272 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0312313128


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Last time we met gay TV gossip reporter Rick Domino, he was having to extricate himself from a very sticky situation at the Oscars. This time, somewhat strapped for cash, he finds himself taking part in a house makeover programme.

Home makeover programmes are clearly a worldwide curse. Who hasn't watched in fascinated horror as someone's faintly dull, beige front room is transformed into a Turkish boudoir or a Bedouin tent -- complete with sand (and trust me, I'm not exaggerating about the latter -- I saw it with my own eyes!)

Rick, who is living way beyond his means, reckons he can make the best of a bad job and have his poor old outdated living room transformed for free. But the tribe of designers on offer ensure that things don't quite go to plan.

There's Aunt Fern, with her crochet fetish, Helena Godiva who has redone rooms in the style of a giant body piercing or a swan theme a la singer Bjork's Oscar dress, Shirtless Bill McCoy who's designed one too many theme park and Curtsy Ann Thomas, a former Texas beauty queen, who seemingly has a tape measure glued to her hand in the quest for perfect symmetry.

And Rick is most miffed to find himself paired with bitchy co-anchor Mitzi McGuire, whilst the other couple are his old friend Terry Zane, a newly-out but decidedly unhip policeman, and Terry's ex-wife Darla Sue, who has the charm of a rattlesnake.

But it's not long before one of the designers meets a nasty end, and the unlikely pairing of Rick and Terry must again work together to clear Terry's cousin of the murder.

Like BEST MURDER OF THE YEAR, the first in the series, the final third drags, as Rick and Terry do the rounds of the suspects. And you will almost certainly guess whodunit, though maybe not why.

It's pure froth and pretty formulaic. Yes, you could probably claim there's a subtext there about the shallowness of Hollywood and the TV world, but who cares? Bloch writes with swagger and humour, and I'm of the view that if it ain't broke, you don't fix it. For the moment.

Reviewed by Sharon Wheeler, May 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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